Study: Consumers believe social media has helped kill privacy

Marian Berelowitz , 9 February 2015

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Many consumers have realized that ultimately, control of their online privacy is out of their hands.

Social media users have grown more sophisticated over the past few years, actively managing both what they choose to share and what others share about them. But many have realized that ultimately, control of their online privacy is out of their hands, thanks to tag-happy, share-happy friends and changing terms of service and privacy controls. As this chart shows, a JWT survey of 6,063 adults conducted in September and October 2014 found that a wide majority of people around the world believe privacy is dead in the social-networking era.

As outlined in our recent report 10 Years of 10 Trends, consumers are struggling with how to maintain a vibrant digital identity in tandem with some measure of privacy. Platforms for ephemeral, anonymous or intimate sharing (i.e., messenger apps) are flourishing as users shift away from Facebook’s centralized hub, while a growing number of tools and services to help ensure private communications or web activity are springing up. The app Xpire, for instance, lets users create self-destructing social media posts. And Wickr recently added a novel feature: Users who securely share an image within the privacy-focused messaging app can also share it with specified Facebook friends—while all other Facebook friends see a picture of a kitten instead.

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